A diagram of the first floor of Quentinsburgh Union Station and the neighboring QUARTA transit center

History

Quentinsburgh Union Station, made to replace an older station that was located where Tunneltop Park is present day, was originally built with four underground tracks in 1931, one year after the completion of the city's first subway line. It was meant to have been opened at the same time (hence why the Union Station/Pedestrian City (metro station) was located directly beneath it), but construction delays held it back until after the subway was completely finished.

Due to the position of the station, only trains using the tracks running north-south through downtown could use the station. Those running northeast (toward Reedsboro) had no way of accessing the station. From 1934 to 1949, trains running along the northeast tracks to Reedsboro were forced to stop at the very small Mid-City Station near the center of the city (which has since then been rebuilt). In 1950, DaSilva Station was built to accommodate the trains that had to turn to go northeast, such as the current FreeTrak Commuter Rail. However, still due to the station's locations and positions along the railway tracks, there is no commuter train that services both stations and no possibility of connecting them via a rail tunnel. However, the two stations are connected by bus and by the QUARTA QLine Metro.

A shot of downtown showing both Quentinsburgh Union Station and DaSilva Station.

In 1984, the station was renovated and largely rebuilt and a fifth track was added to deal with increased north-south rail traffic. This renovation included new amenities, a new waiting room with better rail destination boards, a new ticketing center, a third and fourth story, shops and more. The signage was updated to become digital in 1995 and became largely LED screens in 2013.

In 2015, a sixth track was built to further alleviate the rail congestion around the station, creating 10 platforms. This was accompanied by even more modernizing of the historic station, which now looks like a combination of historic and modern architecture.

Proposed Plans for the stations

Some are considering also adding a fourth track to DaSilva Station to help alleviate northeast traffic, although a new platform for QUARTA commuter rails would likely solve the issues relatively quickly, as only one non-commuter passenger route actually runs through that part of the city and the rest are freight lines.
Another proposal is to extend the QUARTA Airport Express to DaSilva Station to connect the two, but there hasn't been much of a push for this recently.